Why people switch from Termly
Termly sells two things in one dashboard: generated legal documents and a cookie banner. Most people searching for a replacement still like the documents. What they have run into is the banner: the free tier switches it off, the text cannot be edited, every website needs its own licence, and the WordPress plugin has a reputation. Each of the four is verifiable on Termly's own pages.
1. The banner is deactivated when the views run out
Termly's free plan allows 10,000 banner views a month and Starter allows 50,000. Termly's support documentation says what happens next: “When that limit has been reached, your banner will be deactivated until the following month.” A banner view is one page load that shows the banner, not one visitor, so a site with 2,000 visitors reading five pages each is at the free cap. Only Pro+ ($20 a month per website, $15 billed annually) has unlimited views.
2. The banner text is generated, not written
Termly's help center states that it does not allow full customization of the cookie banner text; the copy is generated from your settings selections. Every Termly banner therefore says roughly the same thing, and CSS overrides are discouraged because the classes change without notice.
“Free version is unusable for any privacy regulations. No options to edit the banner text.”
Termly user, Trustpilot reviewer3. One licence per website
Starter and Pro+ are priced “per website/month”, and the pricing page tells you to “purchase additional licenses to manage compliance across multiple properties”, with a bulk discount from five. Two sites on Pro+ are $40 a month; five are $100 (or $75 billed annually). An agency or a company with a marketing site, a docs site and an app is paying per property for a banner that is the same on every one.
4. The WordPress plugin
Termly's plugin has 80,000+ active installations on wordpress.org and a 3.6-star average from 204 reviews, 66 of them one star. Two complaints repeat: page speed, where Termly's own support has recommended bypassing the plugin and pasting the embed script instead, and Google indexing the banner text as the page's meta description. The performance detail is in Integrations & Performance below.
“Cannot stand Termly anymore. It ended up messing up all my SEO description, Google taking their banner text as description. Tried all solutions from Dev side. No one works.”
Termly user, WordPress reviewer, March 2026Not sure what your Termly banner actually blocks before consent? Run your site through the free compliance scanner and see exactly which trackers fire. It is the fastest way to check whether the banner is doing the one job it exists for.
The alternatives at a glance
Eight tools, including ours, on the things a Termly switcher actually asks about: what it costs per site, whether you pay monthly or once, what it caps, whether it writes your legal documents, and whether it is a WordPress plugin or a script. Every price was read from the vendor's own pricing page on September 15, 2026; where a vendor shows a different list price in Europe, both are given.
| Tool | Starts at | Pricing model | Cap | Legal documents | WordPress | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ConsentStack | Free; Pro $29/mo for 30,000 unique visitors | Subscription; 2 domains on Pro, $5/mo each after | Unique visitors, not banner views: 1,000 free, 30,000 Pro, 1,000,000 Business | No generator; the banner links to your policy | Header script, any theme or host | A banner you can write yourself, on more than one site or jurisdiction |
| CookieYes | Free (5,000 pageviews); Basic $10/mo per domain | Subscription per domain; $0.30 per 1,000 extra pageviews on Basic and Pro | Pageviews: 5,000 free, 100,000 Basic, 300,000 Pro, unlimited Ultimate ($55) | No | WordPress plugin | A free banner that stays active, and multi-platform setup |
| iubenda | Essentials $5.99/site/mo billed yearly (EU list: €4.99) | Subscription per site, plus €0.05 per 1,000 pageviews over the cap | Pageviews: 25,000 Essentials, 50,000 Advanced ($24.99), 150,000 Ultimate ($99.99) | Yes, privacy and cookie policy with a 2,400+ clause library; terms from Advanced | WordPress plugin | The closest like-for-like: documents and a banner from one vendor |
| TermsFeed | Free basic policies; premium policies priced per clause, one time | One-time for documents; the consent banner is a $10/mo or $100/yr subscription | Banner: unlimited pages and subdomains, up to 1 million loads a month | Yes, the core product, paid once | Script | Paying once for the documents instead of monthly |
| Complianz | Free plugin; Premium $59/yr for 1 site | Flat yearly licence by site count: 5 sites $179, 25 sites $399 | None (runs inside WordPress) | Yes, generated in the plugin | Native plugin, WordPress only | WordPress-only sites that want documents and a banner on one flat fee |
| Cookiebot | Free up to 50 subpages; Premium Lite €7/mo per domain (US list $8) | Subscription per domain, priced by subpage count | No traffic cap; subpages instead: 50 Lite, 350 Small (€15), 3,500 Medium (€30) | No | WordPress plugin | Automated scanning and IAB TCF publishers |
| Osano | Free (5,000 visitors); Plus $199/mo | Subscription; Plus covers 3 domains and 2 users | Monthly visitors: 5,000 free, 30,000 Plus | Templates on Plus | Script | Consent plus privacy-program features on a self-serve plan |
| OneTrust | No public price; Vendr median $11,970/yr | Contract | Contract | Add-on modules | Script | Enterprise privacy programs |
Sources, all read on September 15, 2026: termly.io/pricing (a 20% promo code and a 25% annual discount were showing), cookieyes.com/pricing, iubenda.com/en/pricing (the page prices by region: the US list was read on September 11, 2026, the EU list on September 15, 2026), termsfeed.com/pricing, complianz.io/pricing (a promo code was showing), cookiebot.com/en/pricing (euro list; the US ladder of $8 / $16 / $34 / $56 / $96 was read on September 11, 2026), osano.com/plans/cookie-consent, onetrust.com/pricing (no prices published; the Vendr median is from our OneTrust cost comparison). ConsentStack prices are from our pricing page.
ConsentStack: if you are leaving for the banner, not the documents
If the reason you are leaving Termly is the banner, ConsentStack is the closest replacement. You write every word of the banner yourself, with different copy per consent model. It is metered on unique visitors rather than banner views, covers 195+ regulations with geo-detection on every tier, signals consent to 7 ad platforms instead of 2, and folds extra domains into $5/mo pricing instead of a licence each. What it does not do is write your privacy policy: if the documents are the part of Termly you would miss, iubenda, TermsFeed and Complianz below all do, and the banner links to whichever policy you keep.
Where Termly is the better fit is covered honestly in When to keep Termly below: the document generator, a one-click WordPress install, an IAB TCF option we do not hold, and a higher free ceiling for a tiny site.
The other seven, one at a time
Each entry names the price that matters for a switcher, what it caps, whether it writes the documents, and the one trade you make. Where we have a full comparison page, it is linked.
CookieYes: the free banner that stays on
CookieYes is the alternative Google's own AI Overview names first as of September 2026, for the free tier and the multi-platform setup. Free covers 5,000 pageviews a month with an active banner; Basic is $10 a month per domain for 100,000 pageviews, Pro $25 for 300,000 with geo-targeting and Global Privacy Control, Ultimate $55 unlimited with branding removal. Basic and Pro can buy extra pageviews at $0.30 per 1,000 rather than going dark. The trade is per-domain math like Termly's, at a higher price for the tier with geo-targeting, and no legal documents at all. Full comparison: CookieYes alternatives.
iubenda: the closest like-for-like
iubenda is the replacement to look at first if you want what Termly does, done differently: a privacy and cookie policy built from a library of 2,400 or more service clauses, plus a banner, per site. Essentials is $5.99 a site a month billed yearly on the US list (€4.99 in Europe) for 25,000 pageviews, then €0.05 per 1,000; Advanced is $24.99 (€19.99) for 50,000 pageviews and adds terms and conditions; Ultimate is $99.99 (€79.99) for 150,000. Like Termly it is per site, and like CookieYes it is metered on pageviews with an overage rather than a switch-off.
TermsFeed: pay once for the documents
TermsFeed's documents are one-time purchases: the basic versions are free with a credit link, and the premium versions are priced per clause (the GDPR, CCPA and CPRA provisions for a privacy policy are $82, for example), with “one-time payments only (no recurring)” stated on the pricing page. That is the line the AI Overview repeats. The part it leaves out is that the cookie banner is a subscription: $10 a month or $100 a year for unlimited pages and subdomains and up to a million loads a month, with geolocation, consent logs and third-party blocking. Pick it when you want to own the documents outright and are fine paying monthly for the banner.
Complianz: documents and a banner on one WordPress licence
Complianz is a WordPress plugin with a free version on wordpress.org and a Premium licence at $59 a year for one site, $179 for five and $399 for twenty-five, with the legal documents (privacy statement, disclaimer, processing agreement and more) generated inside the plugin. It runs on your own install, so there is no banner-view meter and nothing to deactivate, and it holds an IAB TCF registration and Google CMP certification. It is cheaper per site than anything else here. The trade is that it only exists on WordPress. Full comparison: ConsentStack vs Complianz.
Cookiebot: the scanner-first pick
Cookiebot (owned by Usercentrics) prices by how many subpages it has to scan rather than by traffic: free for one domain of up to 50 subpages, then Premium Lite at €7 a month per domain (about $8 on the US list), Small €15 for 350 subpages, Medium €30 for 3,500, up to XLarge at €90, with daily scanning an extra €99 a month and “no traffic limitations” on every tier. No legal documents. Choose it for the automated scan and for IAB TCF; the trade is the per-domain bill. Full comparison: ConsentStack vs Cookiebot.
Osano: consent plus a privacy program, self-serve
Osano's free plan covers 5,000 monthly visitors on one domain; Plus is $199 a month for 30,000 monthly visitors, three domains and two users, and adds privacy and legal templates and a UK and GDPR representative. That is the same 30,000-visitor tier ConsentStack Pro sells for $29 with two domains, so pick Osano for the privacy-program features around the banner, not for the banner. Full comparison: ConsentStack vs Osano.
OneTrust: the enterprise option
OneTrust publishes no prices. Vendr puts the median contract at $11,970 a year before implementation fees, and the product is a privacy program (data mapping, subject requests, vendor risk) with a consent banner inside it. It is the right answer when a procurement team is asking the question, and the wrong one for a site that outgrew a $20 banner. Full comparison: OneTrust pricing vs ConsentStack.
Also on most lists: Usercentrics, which owns Cookiebot and prices its own CMP by monthly sessions from €7; Enzuzo, CookieFirst and Ketch, each of which ranks its own product first on its own alternatives page. So do we, which is why every number on this page names its source and date.
Termly vs ConsentStack pricing
ConsentStack Pro and Termly Pro+ are each product's full-feature tier for one website. Here is what $9 a month buys, and what changes on the second site.
- 30,000 unique visitors, 2 domains
- 7 native ad integrations
- Every word of the banner editable
- Full analytics dashboard
- 25 languages
- 195+ regulations
- Custom CSS/JS
- Headless mode + full API
- Unlimited banner views, 1 website
- Unlimited legal policies
- 2 integrations (Google, Microsoft)
- Generated banner text
- No headless mode
- Multi-language supported
- ~80 regions
$9 a month more on one site. $56 a month less on five.
For one website, ConsentStack Pro is $9 more than Termly Pro+ and adds 5 ad platform integrations (Meta, TikTok, Microsoft Clarity, Pinterest, LinkedIn), fully editable banner text, headless mode, custom CSS and JS, an analytics dashboard, and coverage for 195+ regulations instead of ~80 regions. Termly's Starter tier at $14 still lacks consent logs, custom styles, multi-language and branding removal, so the real minimum for a Termly banner is Pro+ at $20. On the second site the sign flips: Termly needs a second licence, ConsentStack includes it, and by the fifth site it is $100 a month against $44.
Metered on visitors, not banner views
ConsentStack counts a visitor once a month however many pages they load: 30,000 visitors reading five pages each would be 150,000 Termly banner views, three times the Starter cap, and still inside ConsentStack Pro. What happens at the cap is also different: a monthly Pro site that reaches 30,000 visitors is moved to Business so the banner keeps serving, and the new rate is not charged until the next renewal. On the free Basic plan the banner does stop at 1,000 visitors until the next cycle, the same behavior as Termly Free at a different number, so if you are choosing between the two free tiers, compare the caps and the meters, not the words.
Every tier is public
ConsentStack pricing is public through Business at $79/mo. No “contact us” gates. No sales calls to unlock the next tier. Termly's tier after Pro+ is Agency with custom pricing.
Source for Termly prices: termly.io/pricing, read on September 15, 2026: Free (10,000 banner views, 1 basic policy), Starter $14/website/mo ($10 billed annually, 50,000 views, 2 policies), Pro+ $20/website/mo ($15 billed annually, unlimited views and policies). A 20% promo code and a 25% annual discount were showing that day. Termly Agency tier requires custom pricing via sales engagement.
Control
Live in minutes, compliant everywhere
Add one script tag, enable Global Compliance Mode (a single toggle) and 195+ regulations apply automatically. ConsentStack detects each visitor's location and applies the right consent model: opt-in for Europe, opt-out for California, notice where that's all that's required. All 20 US state privacy laws resolve per-state with no per-region configuration. One toggle. Every jurisdiction.
Termly requires you to select which regions you serve in their dashboard, then maps those to consent models. Their coverage tops out around 46 documented regulations. If you need compliance in APAC, MENA, or Sub-Saharan Africa, the coverage is thin and the configuration is on you. Browse all 195+ regulations →
Full customization when you need it
Most teams use the visual builder and never touch code. But when you need more, everything is open: custom CSS, JavaScript injection, headless mode, and a full API. Termly auto-generates your banner text and doesn't let you change it. Their help center confirms: “Termly does not allow full customization of the cookie banner text.” CSS overrides are discouraged because their classes change without notice.
Your banner, your words
Per-consent-model content overrides mean GDPR visitors see different messaging than CCPA visitors. 12 color tokens, 5 banner layouts, 4 preferences center layouts, and custom CSS/JS injection for pixel-perfect control.
Build your own consent experience
ConsentStack's developer API lets you trigger the banner, update consent, open preferences, and listen for changes from your own code. Termly's API is read-only: you can check the current state, but you can't control anything. No headless mode. No way to build a custom consent experience. The widget is the product.
Termly's auto-blocker can also break legitimate site features like chat widgets and site search because it can't always tell the difference between a tracker and a tool your visitors need. ConsentStack checks against a database of 900+ known trackers and lets you override any decision.
“The autoblocker blocks some of our most popular apps including chat, site search, reviews.”
Termly user, Capterra reviewer, Digital Marketing ManagerIntegrations & Performance
ConsentStack tells 7 ad platforms about your visitors' consent choices: Google, Meta, TikTok, Microsoft Ads, Microsoft Clarity, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Termly connects to 2: Google and Microsoft. If you run ads on Meta, TikTok, or Pinterest alongside Termly, those platforms never know whether a visitor consented. Your ad reporting suffers and you lose insight into what's working.
Performance
ConsentStack ships ~46 KB total: stub plus core with no extra downloads. No published bundle size from Termly. Absent from independent CMP performance benchmarks.
Termly's WordPress plugin is a known performance problem. When asked about PageSpeed degradation, Termly's own support recommended bypassing the plugin and manually installing the embed script instead.
“While we have this plugin activated, we got the scoring between 37–43. But once we deactivate the plugin, we are getting the score between 70–74.”
Termly user, WordPress reviewerUsers also report Termly's banner text being indexed by Google as their page's meta description, replacing actual SEO copy in search results; the review quoted in Why people switch above is one of several on wordpress.org saying so.
$9/month more. A different product entirely.
Full banner control, 195+ regulations, 7 ad integrations, and a ~46 KB SDK. Metered on visitors, not banner views. No generated text, no read-only API.
When to keep Termly
ConsentStack is focused on doing website consent management exceptionally well. Some capabilities are still on our roadmap, and Termly has strengths worth acknowledging.
The legal documents
Termly generates privacy policies, terms of service, and other legal documents from templates and keeps them updated; Pro+ includes an unlimited number. We chose not to build this. Auto-generated legal documents can't reflect your actual data practices, and template accuracy has been questioned: a Termly template once listed Privacy Shield as valid for international data transfers, years after a court invalidated it. But if you want the documents and the banner from one vendor and do not want to write the banner yourself, Termly or iubenda is the honest pick. If you think we should add a policy generator, let us know.
IAB TCF v2.2 and GPP
ConsentStack does not yet support TCF or GPP. If your use case requires TCF compliance for EU programmatic advertising, Termly supports this on Pro+. It's a real gap.
WordPress one-click install
Termly has 80,000+ active WordPress installations and a one-click plugin. ConsentStack works on WordPress via a script tag, but there's no dedicated plugin. If installing from the WordPress plugin directory is non-negotiable, Termly is established there. (The plugin has documented performance issues; see above.)
Free tier for tiny sites
Termly's free tier covers 10,000 banner views a month. ConsentStack's covers 1,000 unique monthly visitors. Views and visitors are different meters, but for a personal blog or hobby project where every dollar counts, Termly's free ceiling is higher.
Termly has been around since 2017 and serves 2 million businesses. For the use cases above, it's a reasonable choice. For everything else on this page, ConsentStack delivers more for a few dollars more.
FAQ
It depends on why you are leaving. If you want a cookie banner you can write yourself, metered on visitors rather than banner views, ConsentStack is the closest replacement, from $29/month for 30,000 unique visitors and 2 domains. If Termly's legal documents are the part you need, iubenda is the closest like-for-like (documents and a banner per site), TermsFeed lets you pay once for the documents, and Complianz bundles both into a flat yearly WordPress licence. CookieYes is the pick for a free banner that stays active.
Yes. ConsentStack's Basic plan is free for 1,000 unique monthly visitors on one domain. CookieYes is free for 5,000 pageviews a month, Cookiebot is free for one domain of up to 50 subpages, Complianz has a free plugin on wordpress.org, and TermsFeed's basic policies are free with a credit link. Termly's own free plan covers 10,000 banner views and one basic policy, and deactivates the banner once the views run out.
Termly's support documentation says: "When that limit has been reached, your banner will be deactivated until the following month." The free plan allows 10,000 banner views a month and Starter allows 50,000; only Pro+ ($20/month per website, $15 billed annually) has unlimited views. A banner view is one page load that shows the banner, so one visitor reading twenty pages is twenty views.
iubenda (privacy and cookie policy from a 2,400+ clause library, terms and conditions from the Advanced plan), TermsFeed (privacy policy, terms, cookie policy, EULA and more, paid once per document), Complianz (privacy statement, disclaimer, processing agreement and more, inside the WordPress plugin) and Osano (privacy and legal templates on Plus). ConsentStack does not generate legal documents; the banner links to the policy you already have.
On the free Basic plan, yes: at 1,000 unique monthly visitors the banner stops showing until the next cycle, the same behavior as Termly Free at a different number and a different meter. On a monthly Pro plan, reaching 30,000 unique visitors moves the site to Business automatically so the banner keeps serving, and the new rate is not charged until the next renewal. Annual Pro plans are handled by a person rather than switched off.
For a plugin-native setup on WordPress only, Complianz is the closest replacement: it installs from wordpress.org, has a free version, generates the legal documents and never meters banner views. CookieYes and Cookiebot also ship WordPress plugins. ConsentStack installs on WordPress as a lightweight header script that works on any theme or host, which is the better fit when the same account also covers a Shopify store, a Webflow site or a React app.
With ConsentStack, yes, if you can export them. Termly includes consent logs on Pro+; export them before you cancel and ConsentStack imports the file during onboarding, so the historical records arrive with their original consent ID, timestamp and region, and returning visitors keep the choice they already made. Most other platforms ask every visitor to consent again.
Termly Pro+ is $20/month per website ($15 billed annually) and every additional website needs its own licence, so five sites cost $100/month. ConsentStack Pro is $29/month ($23 annual) with 2 domains included and $5/month per extra domain, so five sites cost $44/month. For one site ConsentStack is $9/month more and includes 7 ad platform integrations instead of 2, fully editable banner text, headless mode and a full API.
Related Comparisons
We also ran Termly's free cookie scanner against a test site with documented consent violations, alongside 11 other scanners. See the tested cookie scanner comparison for what it caught and missed.
Evaluating other consent management platforms? See how ConsentStack compares.
